Body armor and particularly “plate carriers” are well known in the military and law enforcement communities. Plate carriers are garments that support rigid ballistic armor plates and/or flexible ballistic armor inserts within internal pockets or pouches of the carrier. The plate carrier is generally comprised of front and back panel sections connected by shoulder straps and a waist strap or cummerbund. Generally, conventional plate carriers are not sized and proportioned for particular wearers but to accommodate the sizes of inserts and armor plates, which are typically available in small, medium, large and extra large sizes. Consequently, conventional plate carriers have suffered from issues relating to the proper fit of the plate carrier to the individual wearer. Ideally, a plate carrier must properly position and secure the plates to adequately cover the wearer's vital areas, while accommodating the various sizes of plates and inserts. One common issue with conventional plate carriers is the position and height of the rear plate on the wearer's back. Because the front and back panels are suspended from shoulder straps, the rear panel often does not ride high enough on the wearer's back to provide adequate thoracic protection. In addition, because the armor plates and inserts are simply carried within internal pockets or pouches within the panel sections, smaller plates and inserts often shift about within the pockets as the wearer moves.
The present invention provides a plate carrier that includes both front and rear panel sections with internal pockets for supporting armor plates and inserts, but positions the rear panel section to provide improved thoracic protection. The front and rear panel sections are suspended by shoulder straps, which connect to the rear panel section at a mid point below the top edge of the rear panel section. The mid point connection of the shoulder straps causes the rear panel section to ride higher than the front panel section and higher on the wearer's back thereby positioning the armor plate inside high on the wearer's back and providing better ballistic coverage of the wearer's upper thoracic area. One of the internal pockets of each panel section has facing strips of hook and loop material sewn around its inner periphery that adhere together around an armor plate to center and hold the plate in place within the pocket.
Various advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of an embodiment of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.